Fisher’s homer lifts Dixie past feisty Pine View and into semifinals

Pine View vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, May 16, 2018, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Tyson Fisher hit two home runs and Kayler Yates pitched three innings of brilliant relief as the Dixie Flyers edged past rival Pine View 4-3 Wednesday afternoon in the 4A state quarterfinals at Bruce Hurst Field.

The win helps the Flyers to advance to the semifinals of the 4A state tournament to be held Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Hurst Field. Dixie will battle Juan Diego, which defeated Desert Hills 5-1.

“We knew this was going to a be a battle and very different from the games we played against them in the regular season,” Dixie coach Danny Ipson said. “Pine View fought back after we got that early lead and that’s admirable of them. We needed to do a better job of pushing the action a little bit. I think we went flat after that early lead.”

Fisher socked a two-run home run in the top of the first and fellow slugger Chase Lundin followed it with a long ball of his own to make it 3-0. It looked like the Flyers might cruise to an easy win, but Pine View had other ideas.

“It’s the playoffs and it’s always different at state,” Fisher said. “You’re going to get the best from everybody. Pine View’s a good team. They’re scrappy. And they’re playing really good right now. We just found a way to fight and stay in it and get the win.”

Dixie beat Pine View 10-0 and 8-1 in two games earlier this season. And four batters into Wednesday’s playoff game, it was already 3-0 as Fisher hit a two-run homer with one out and Lundin followed that with a solo shot.

“That good start gave us a lot of confidence and I was thinking we were going to run up the score and maybe get a mercy win,” Fisher said. “But (Pine View’s) Tanner Staheli is a good pitcher and he settled in and kept us off of the scoreboard.”

After that initial trouble, Staheli retired 12 of the next 13 Dixie batters. He also helped the Panthers offense get back into the game. Staheli doubled and scored on a Cody Riddle single to make it 3-1 in the bottom of the first.

It was the same score in the bottom of the fourth when Pine View was able to rally and tie the game. With one out, Weston Sampson and Luke Green drew walks off of Fisher. A double steal put runners at second and third.

Porter Dombrowski then hit a hot shot to third that was fielded by Hobbs Nyberg. He tried to cut down the lead runner at the plate, but the throw was wide and caromed away, allowing both base runners to score, making it 3-3.

With the score still tied in the top of the sixth, Fisher led off the inning by taking the first pitch for a ball, then sending the second one deep over the left field fence.

“The kid’s going to hit the ball hard everytime up,” Dixie coach Danny Ipson said. “That really puts the defense on edge, and that’s something we’ve worked on this year and is really important for us. He was great for us on Saturday and turned around and was great for us again.”

Yates came into the game in relief in the fifth and got in trouble right away, giving up a hit and a walk. But he got a couple of groundouts and picked a man off at second base to come away clean. He then retired six of the next seven Pine View batters to record the win.

“I had mixed emotions coming off the mound,” Fisher said. “I wanted to finish the game, but Kayler’s a great pitcher and I knew they wanted to get me out so I’d be able to pitch on Saturday. That would be a dream to be able to pitch for a state championship.”

Yates ended up throwing three innings of one-hit ball and picked up the win.

“Kayler’s been in a position to be our closer the last two seasons and he does a really nice job in that role,” Ipson said. “The idea was to win the game and get Tyson out of there so he would be available Saturday.”

Dixie, 25-3, advances to the 4A semifinals and will play Juan Diego (21-6) at 4:30 p.m. on Friday in the winner’s bracket. The Soaring Eagle beat Desert Hills 5-1 behind an excellent pitching performance from Cooper Rust.

Dixie and Juan Diego are the only two teams remaining with out a loss in the 4A tourney.

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About the Author

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m.
Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.